Since a plastic lens is light and not easily cracked compared to inorganic lenses, plastic lenses have been become widely distributed as optical elements such as an eyeglass lens, a camera lens, and the like. In recent years, development of a plastic lens having a photochromic performance has proceeded.
As the plastic lens having a photochromic performance, there are (1) a plastic lens in which a photochromic compound is included in a plastic lens substrate and (2) a plastic lens comprised of a layer including a photochromic compound and a plastic lens substrate.
As the plastic lens of the above (1), a plastic lens described in Patent Document 1 or Patent Document 2 can be exemplified.
Patent Document 1 describes a plastic lens obtained by polymerizing a monomer mixture including a monomer component such as a methacrylic ester and a photochromic compound.
Patent Document 2 describes a photochromic plastic lens including a photochromic organic compound in the vicinity of the surface thereof. In the document, a photochromic plastic lens is manufactured by impregnating the vicinity of the surface of a plastic lens substrate with a photochromic organic compound.
As the plastic lens of the above (2), a plastic lens described in Patent Document 3 can be exemplified.
Patent Document 3 describes a polarizing lens obtained by forming a photochromic polymer layer by polymerizing a mixture containing of a compound having a radically polymerizable group and a photochromic compound on the surface of a transparent resin having a polarizing film. Furthermore, it is described that the transparent resin having a polarizing film consists of a polyolefin-based resin such as polymethyl pentene (paragraph 0070).
Patent Document 4 describes a photochromic lens obtained by embedding a laminate (A) in which a thermosetting polyurethane resin layer containing a photochromic compound is sandwiched between two transparent plastic lens materials of which the surfaces are provided with coating layers into a lens body comprised of a transparent thermosetting resin (B) or stacking the thermosetting resin (B) on the laminate (A). As the transparent plastic material, a noncrystalline polyolefin-based resin can be exemplified.
Moreover, Patent Document 5 discloses a plastic lens including a predetermined compound having photochromic characteristics.